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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

So, when I finished the book, I was told I could write a dedication and/or acknowledgements. Do you have any idea how long it took me to write these? Longer than the entire book! How do you acknowledge everyone that helped to make the book a reality? What if I inadvertently leave off someone? Will they stop speaking to me? Will they throw rotten tomatoes at me every time we cross paths? What if I thank too many people and my acknowledgements end up being longer than chapters 1-5? How do you go about writing acknowledgements? How do you decide to whom you'll dedicate the book?

I sent what I'd written to my agent with the question, "How does this look?" She replied with something along the lines of, "Oh that's interesting. Or you know, you could always use actual sentences when you write it." Guess my first draft wasn't so great after all. Apparently it's not good to write stuff like, "I thank my editor, Beth, for making me sound not stupid." Gee, yeah, that doesn't sound too stupid. @@

I looked over that original draft and decided that maybe I didn't thank enough people. Oh no, I'm going to offend someone by leaving them out. I rewrote it. "...and I want to thank my first grade teacher who was so nice even if did she cast me as a munchkin in The Wizard of Oz and gave Cheryl the part of Dorothy. And I want to thank my mailman for delivering my mail and that one guy at the grocery store who held the door for me a couple months ago and, oh yeah, I can't forget Jen and Sue and Julie and Deb and Ginny and Dee and Melissa and Jane and Candace and Nancy and Amy and Stacie and Debra and Kim and Kristyi and Erin and Michelle and..."

OK, maybe that's a little ridiculous. Back to the drawing board. "I want to thank everyone who has helped me." Nah, not specific enough.

Sitting back down, I wrote, "thank you to the library who let me write there where it was quiet except for the time those obnoxious guys who reeked of stale smoke sat down and talked way too loudly about chess..." Ummm, "thank you to the good people at Bacardi...". How about, "thank you to the makers of Ghiradelli chocolate..."

"I want to thank the academy..." Oh crap. I'm not accepting an Oscar! This is HARD!

I went to my bookshelf to look for examples. Unfortunately, I only have kiddie books on my shelves and most of them didn't have a page of acknowledgements. If they did, they'd probably sound like, "Thank you to Lou for taking me to the zoo, where I learned about the gnu and ate a slushy that was blue."

I finally gave up and let Brooklyn and Clayton type the acknowledgements. So, when you get my book, please understand that I will sign it in bold, black marker right over the acknowledgement page.

LOL! When you started to name all those random names, I had flashbacks of Romper Room (did you have that show as a kid???) Anyhoo, think about it... you could just write a TON of random names and let everyone think you meant them. LOLps I can't wait to get a copy! I may just have to track you down to get it signed! (that sounds creepy in a stalker sort or way, doens't it?)

Been there sweated that feel your pain. I had it easy, though: I got to end mine with a huge thank you to the doctor who saved my life. Not your typical knitting-and-stories-book ending, but it was the only possible one. Trust me, though, don't go there if you don't have to. The prereqs are a killer.

I agree, I hope you are in Michigan at some point doing a signing down river (ok I'm still looking for the darn river I am down from) in the Detroit aera. I love your site and can't wait to get your book to prove to my mother my life isnt' as bad as it gets (just kidding).

Yes thank the pokemon cards! Or the grocery store for placing the cards where they did for the kids to reach LOL. Just curious... do you still have the pokemon cards? I remember a friend of yours bought them on ebay. Great job on the book - can't wait to buy it!

lol Dawn- when my mom wrote her doctoral dissertation she had about 10 pages of acknowledgements! I think my brother, husband, and I each had our own paragraph! She even thanked my kids- yeah, they did a lot to help the research process... ;)

I think writing it as though it was from the kids would be HYSTERICAL!... Clay would like to thank the makers of OREOs who make the yummy cookies he ate while mommy was writing her book...Brooklyn would like to thank PBS for the endless hours of TV she watched while mommy was writing her book.... etc.

I am sure what ever you come up with will only be scrytinized by YOU!:)

Isn't it cool to have a dilemma like that? You'll figure out something great, Dawn. And no stresses -- anyone who knows you would understand if they were accidentally left off the list. But I'm with the crowd who thinks you need thank only that party of seven who made your book happen!

Karen Kingsbury writes something to her husband, each of her 6 kids and then another page or two to the people who actually helped her get the book written (editor, prayer partners, babysitters, etc.). She sells a lot of books so go for it!